Saturday, September 10, 2011

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival

This was our first visit to the Sheep and Wool festival and the girls and I already have plans to go again next year!

After checking out the newborn lambs, we watched the end of a shearing demonstration.

Then back to the lambing area, dawdling, until we were lucky enough to watch the birth of this little lady.

And about ten minutes later, her little sibling...you can see her head and front legs emerging here. The girls were fascinated.

The mama licks off the afterbirth, or some of it anyway.

After spending the better part of an hour watching those little newborns wobble and bleat and look insanely cute, we headed out to watch the stock dog 'crook and whistle' trials. We watched for awhile, but the heat of the sun drove us back in...

...to feed the sheep, and...

to check on our favorite little newborns! Ayla wanted a very close look.

We watched another sheep shearing demo because the girls could not get enough :) Ayla got a little restless, so after nursing her, I walked around with her while Camille and Sylvia stayed to the end of the demo.

They chatted up the shearer during the Q and A.
And lets not forget the shops...it was a visual and tactile dream.

The girls enjoyed chatting up the vendors, and the vendors seemed to enjoy their enthusiasm and fascination.

One vendor gave them some bits of different natural shades of roving, and one gave them pins that they were excited about. They were both being very polite and well-spoken...I was a proud mama :)
One of the friendly vendors took our family photo while Ayla slept peacefully in her backpack.

And Camille was shown that if she just tugs and twists the wool that the shearer gave her, that it basically creates yarn. But it unravels. So, I showed her that if she folds it in half, it twists back on itself, creating a thicker two-ply yarn that doesn't unravel. (She decided that she's going to save her allowance to buy a drop spindle at next year's festival, instead of a Nintendo DS ;)

After four hours of festival love, the girls didn't want to leave, but it was time for some real food and the beginning of the long drive home...after one more peak at 'our' little lambs.

Arriving home just as the last drops of brilliance faded from the sunset and the nearly-full moon was on the rise.

About Me

I am Nikole, mama to three lovely and lively kiddos. Cam is 14 years old, Sylvi is 11, and Ayla is 8. This blog is generally a chronicle of our country-living, respectful-parenting, joy-seeking, radical-unschooling life. It is a swirl of fun, learning, and creativity, all in a ragamuffin style ;-)